Over the past decade, California has passed various laws and initiatives aimed at decreasing driving, carbon emissions, and sprawl.

No one has told the Central Valley, which is celebrating the groundbreaking of yet another highway expansion project.

“This will connect us all in a more meaningful way,” said Henry
Perea, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors and one of
many speakers at a ground-breaking ceremony Friday. “When I see this
freeway, I see a gateway to economic prosperity.”

This week the Fresno Bee announced that yet another round of highway expansions would kick off in the rural parts of the county. The expansion plan will take a two-lane road, and make it four lanes, with a median wide enough to support two more.Click to read more!

If you thought the era of plowing through an established neighborhood to build a brand new highway was over, then Bakersfield and Caltrans would like to have a word with you.

I’ve often said that Fresno is a lot like Los Angeles of 20 years ago; mimicking many of the bad choices, eventually receiving many of the trends (yay froyo, when will cupcakes hit!?) and having a downtown that will hopefully follow the path of redevelopment that LA eventually took.

Bakersfield, smaller and less developed than Fresno, is a few years further behind. Fresno made the decision to bulldoze neighborhoods over a decade ago, when highway 180 was erected through the area between downtown and the tower district. Now it’s Bakersfield’s turn to do what their cool peers Fresno and LA did, and put highways before people.Click to read more!

Besides expanding their transit system, via the Metrobus system and a brand new subway line which is currently in the final stages of construction, Mexico City has embarked on some highway expansion, but on a vertical scale.

Known as the second floor of the Periférico (ring road), this new structure towers above the existing 6 lane freeway. Access points are limited, giving the new highway an express characteristic. Supposedly, once it’s all done, the upper level may be tolled.

Here are pictures from last week of the extension of the 2nd level.

We started in the far south of the city, heading north. You can see how progress is completed in stages.

Much has been said about the newly announced GOP transportation reauthorization proposal, but I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the cover of their bill.

This thing.

It’s an enormous WTF. Should be in a modern art museum even.

First a quick summary of what’s inside:
-33% cut to transportation (even though as the country grows, any rational bill would increase with inflation, at least)
-Elimination of funding for pedestrian/biking and HSR
-Massive cuts to Amtrak
-“Back to the basics” 80/20 funding split between highways and transit